To me, these bikes are "kinda" like Dutch bikes in that all have been changed over to upright
riding position with great Brooks saddles. It just shows that if the Dutch won't sell here we
"make" our own Dutch bikes!! :D :D :D

Very nice...........

I sure love reading about the nostalgia that goes with these old three speeds and utility bikes! I pine for those old days and think they will come again so that our kids will come to know the enjoyment a bike can bring.

I have a utility bike--a Breezer Villager, which has a 7 sp internal gear hub. This is what I shopped for--I wanted a commuter specific bike.

I'm convinced that if these Dutch-style bikes caught on, they would rule the day again. Basic transportation is not the function of the mountain bike or the road bike. Cycling purists will scoff at me, but I love the features of my bike--from the bell to the chain guard to the fenders to the generator lights--it is a good, solid option to the car for riding in all sorts of conditions. The gearing (albeit, limited) offers good acceleration from a stop. The bike is fast enough.

Riding bikes for simple daily chores is a big stepping stone for better physical fitness and to longer bike rides. It should be a stepping stone to road bikes and mountain bikes--I, for one, can't wait to get a good road bike one day for 20+ mile weekend rides.

The sad state of affairs in North America is that the bikes in our garages are in ill-repair and aren't appropriate for the vast majority of our riding. We don't want to mess adjusting shifters and cleaning cables regularly. We don't want road spray from a slight rain to give us a stripe on our back. We don't want pant legs getting grease covered. We don't want to hold packages in our arms or handlebars when we ride. We need simple bikes with fixed gears or internal gear hubs with fenders, racks, chain guards, bells, and kickstands. Once that happens, the attitude toward bike will change for the better.

Case in point--my kids. Their mountain style bikes need regular repair. They hate getting caught in the rain and dark. Their pants get caught in the chain. They don't enjoy their bikes!

Everyone says add accessories to make the bike work--how many parents are willing to go out and outfit their kids bikes with all they need? Expand that issue to adults--how many are willing or even know to outfit their bikes for all they need?

In order to significantly increase bike riding--we need Dutch-style bikes.

I agree with everything you wrote but would change one letter for clarity.

It Could be a stepping stone to road bikes and mountain bikes.

IF that is what the cyclist would like to do. Utility bikes as you noted are also completely functional as is and can be a joy for those cyclists who couldn't care less about ever progressing or upgrading to road or mountain bikes

You forgot to mention the downgrade to singlespeeds!

Very nice bikes, JCM! And you too, ZachS. I've seen your bike before in the commuting bike pics thread, I just forgot who owned it.

*I need to stop being jealous*

Eh, just start building one.

Once I have another new daily rider or two, my bike is going to get some MASSIVE updates - green sparkly powdercoat on frame and stem, horizontal dropouts, 8-speed nexus, fenders which are either shiny or powedercoated to match the frame.....

The only segments who will be attracted to these clunkers are AARP members and flabby ex hippies.

So...people who ride sporty stripped down bikes are all pricks?

Not all of them, just some.

Ah ha! Now I know who lives in Holland. :)

I've yet to see a bicycle be a babe magnet. Maybe I could add a few sexy touches to mine--how about tassles to my handlebar grips and streamer in my wheels? Or maybe just a tightly woven basket. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

From my experience, my wife likes my Breezer. No, we haven't brought it into the bedroom scene.:( She laughed at first, but then she said it is pretty neat. From her, that is a ringing endorsement.

The reason bike consumption has gone from practical transportation, to race bikes, to mountain bikes is simple, bicycle manufacturers want to make money. Bicycles are simple, reliable machines. A good three speed rarely flats and can go years without even the most basic maintenance. They aren't like cars that you need to replace every few years. So bikes are essentially, for most people, a once in a lifetime purchase. So once everyone bought a bike in the 50 and 60, sales stagnated.

Now, if you can convince people through advertising that upright handelbar bikes are out, that they have to have a 10 speed with down handlebars, the sheep go out and buy a ten speed, a bike that really doesn't fit their needs because it is essentially a race bike, but what the heck, its the IN THING! So that explains why everyone got ten speeds in the 70s.

Now, everyone has a 10 speed and bike sales are down again, so Madison Avenue to the rescue! Now advertisers convince us to get mountain bikes, a bicycle that most people will never use for its intended purpose of going off road with. Thus, the explosion in mountain bikes sales in the starting in the 80s.

Any guesses on what the new trend of bicycles we don't need is going to be?

I find it interesting that often people who present themselves as fit, athletic types complain that commuter bikes and vintage 3 speeds are too difficult to ride on anything other than flat ground but then turn around and say that the people who do ride them are old and out of shape. The reverse would seem more logical.

Regards,
Alan

Ya, I see your point about the bicycle manufacturers needing something new to keep the sales rolling. The funny thing is that people actually went in that impractical direction. I guess the jump from practical uprights to the 10-speed road bike wasn't that silly because it was done by a young generation who actually did use the road bike to extent their distance range from neighborhood riding to the outer city limits and beyond.

To me, the great marvel is how the mountain bike fashion took on so strong for city riders. For most city riding, mountain bikes are just so impractical that it blows the mind. The unecessary fat tires add rolling resistance and energy loss no matter how light the rest of the bike is or what gearing is applied.

Don't get me wrong - I own mountain bikes too and I use them for off road riding and for city riding in snow/ice. They have their place, but not for city riding.

But I wonder how much of the mountain bike fashion was actually driven by the industry. That is not easy to do and I don't think that bicycle manufacturers are really that marketing savvy. Proctor and Gamble might be able to convince people that they need to use deodorant, but could little TREK Corporation actually convince a nation to put all their upper body weight onto single position bars so they can huff and puff a heavy bike around? There was obviously something else influencing the market; some kind of cool factor or just a desire for something new.

I don't know what the reason was, but the move to mountain bike fashion was a strange and wide sweeping change to an impractical design for the way most people bicycle.

Thankyou for the advice. I looked up "dang" and my dictionary unfortunately didn't have it. I agree the other word was "potentially offensive".

To add to that, anyone riding a bike is a good thing for their fitness and to the ecology. Especially for the overweight and the elderly.

Your comment is interesting, Alan. I guess bikes are like other sports--people who are good want the best equipment money can buy. The best baseball gloves, tennis rackets, golf clubs, etc. A common utility bike isn't for the best bike riders. However, it is for the person looking to do regular things on a bike. It is hard to envision how you can market to a segment like that. This bike is more like a Toyota Corolla or Chevy Malibu than a Corvette. Corolla's and Malibu's sell, but the advertising must be tricky.

It worked before and I'm sure it can work again--I just don't know how. Maybe the nostagia factor could be part of it.

"Dang" is a substitute for vulgar all purpose four letter words that really apply; but for the purposes of maintaining BF decorum "dang" will do. At least that's what "dang" means when I use it on this forum

Thankyou.

Note also that Toyota and Chevy supplies their dealers with Corollas and Malibus for the showroom and salesmen don't run off if customers mention that an MR2 Spyder or Corvette really doesn't fit their needs.

And if the Corolla or Malibu is the wrong color or not equipped right, the salesmen will be happy to write an order for the car the customer wants.

OH! OH!OH! OOOOOOHHH!!! (cyclasm) Got a smoke? :D

And turned off millions of others for whom the 10 speed racers were brutaly harsh riding and with uncomfortable riding positions to match. Nothing like the fun rides they remembered as youth, but more like doing unpleasant calisthenics for an eventual benefit to be seen off the bike.

My take is, that no matter how impractical the mountain bike design was for general bicycling, it offered a more comfortable ride to the general public than the despised/discarded 10 speed racer. or at least a tolerable ride. It had, at least, lower pressure tires, a more upright riding position, and a wider saddle.

Let's go easy on bkrownd.

He's over there in Hawaii, rotting in the record rain and humidity. It probably itches sumthin' awful. :D
In a way, I can understand; here in the Seattle area, we're just getting some sky after record rain all winter - which for us began about September, it seems. I thought I wouldn't make it. My wife thought so, too.

I really believe a good marketing campaign can sell refrigerators to Eskimos. Just look at the recent explosion of SUV sales. Madison Avenue has convinced the majority of Americans to buy a vehicle that they will never use for its intended purpose, to go off road! What percentage of purchasers actually use an SUV to tow or go off road? Very few.

When everyone started getting SUVs years ago a buddy of mine got a Land Rover. I told him, lets go off-roading on some property my relative owns and he said "Are you kidding, I'm not going to get this dirty, I just paid a hundred bucks to have it detailed!"

I'm impressed. I recently sold my nearly ment Bianchi Milano because it was waaaaaay too inefficient due to the Nexus hub. Even my heavier Univega hybrid was more efficient with a seven speed cassette on the back.

Right. And that's important to lots of people. I bet quite a few more people would ride to work if they didn't have to wear "funny" clothes.

I don't want to ride to work in spandex, and then have to shower and change. I don't want to keep a wardrobe at work. I want to ride to work in my work clothes, which for me is a suit and tie, or at least a sport coat and slacks. Fenders are a necessity. Internal gears with a chainguard would be wonderful, if I could find a bicycle so equipped at a reasonable price. I'd settle for a derailleur bike with a chainguard, but such a thing does not appear to exist in the US, at least at a reasonable price. I'd be willing to spend more money on a bike with these features if there was somewhere safe to lock it up while I'm at work, but there isn't, so I won't spend more than a couple of hundred bucks on a commuter. So it's the pants clip for me -- dorky but reasonably effective.

Old english 3 spd is your answer. Fenders, chainguard. I commute on a Dunelt 3 spd in a suit. Its a short commute, a little over a mile, but I would go up to about 5 miles if I had to. After that, I would still use the 3 spd, but it gets pretty hot here in Miami, so I'd do the clothes change route.

Who said anyone needs to wear "funny" clothes? I commuted in shorts/jeans and t-shirt/sweatshirt for 10 years before I learned about the joy of wicking fabrics.